Cutting boards for use in cutting and preparing various food items are generally known. Further, cutting board assemblies including various components that aid in the cutting and preparation process are also known. Examples of available cutting board assemblies include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,271 to Collins, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,970 to Scott.
Collins et al. discloses a cutting board assembly including a cutting board surface having a pair of legs supporting the surface, a container for holding food that has been cut or prepared and a container for disposing of waste produced during the cutting. The containers are separate components that may be detachably connected to the cutting board surface when it is being used. However, there is no accommodation for storing the containers integrally with the cutting surface when it is not in use.
Collins et al. also discloses that the container for holding food that has been cut or prepared includes hash marks for measuring purposes. The hash marks begin near a base of the container and extend up a wall of the container such that food volume may be measured based on the depth of the food in the container. This method of measuring volume may be well suited for liquid or granular food items that have a tendency to level out in a container due to gravity. However, cut food items, which are typically more bulky, solid foods, such as onions, peppers, celery, and the like, do not share the tendency to level out along the base of a container. In contrast, such food items tend to stack in mounds. Accordingly, the “bottom-up” volume measuring method of Collins et al. is not ideal for the typical type of food items that are cut using a cutting board.
Scott discloses a cutting board assembly with multiple interchangeable cutting surfaces. The available surfaces include a perforated cutting surface, a cutting surface including a door hinged to the surface and a cold cutting surface. Both the perforated surface and the surface with the door provide access to a holding container under the cutting surface. For the perforated surface, the holding container provides a receptacle for juices or other fluids associated with the food being cut. For the surface with the hinged door, the holding container provides many uses. Examples include holding waste from the food being cut and holding the food that has been cut until it is used. The holding container slides into a base of the cutting board assembly and may be stored therein when the cutting board assembly is not in use. Unfortunately, in order to access the holding container, the hinged door of the surface must be lifted thereby reducing the surface area available for cutting.
A cutting board assembly addressing the shortcomings of available cutting board assemblies would be desirable. For instance, a cutting board assembly providing a cutting surface free from obstruction in addition to containers for holding cut food that may be stored within the cutting board assembly when it is not in use would be advantageous. Further, a cutting board assembly providing a means for measuring the volume of cut food that is better suited to bulky, solid foods would be advantageous.
Such benefits are provided by the cutting board assembly disclosed, for example, in Casale U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0108685, which is incorporated herein by reference. The present invention claimed herein relates to yet a further improvement in the cutting board assembly of the Casale reference (hereinafter the “Casale Cutting Board Assembly”).